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Salt... How much?

08-28-2014, 09:53 PM

Hey gang, i never really got the amount of salt down right. How much salt should i use per pound of flour? honestly i don't measure anything, i do it all by feel, wright or wrong this is how im learning, im sure soon i will get it down. But in the meantime what would you guys recommend for salt?

Beyond balance of taste, salt plays a number of important roles in bread (and pizza dough) namely tightening the gluten network and improving loaf volume. This balance is delicate and requires precise measurement, which is 2-2.5% of flour weight. Commercial bakers and many home bakers prefer to use baker's percentages, a system that weighs dough ingredients for accuracy and repeat-ability.

Using Bakers percentages is easy but requires a reasonably-priced scale (preferably digital that goes down to a tenth of a gram). You can get around this via measuring by volume, although this method is not quite as accurate.

2% of 1lb (453g) is 9g. Therefore, you need to add 9 grams of salt for every pound of flour. There are approximately 6g of salt in a teaspoon.

If you are interested, below is a link to pizza dough calculators that show how you can reliably build any size batch of dough to any specification you want, with ease.

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When you need to measure amounts smaller than your capability to do so, you multiply the amount to the point at which you CAN measure it accurately, then dissolve it into a known amount of water. Use whatever portion of the solution in proportion to get the small amount of dissolved ingredient you need you need.

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For me its
3 cups flour
1 tspn salt
2 tspns yeast
I cup and a bit of water (add a bit more by eye as I mix)
a glug of EVOO in the bowl ball and rest covered.

Its not accurate but when you do it a few times its becomes second nature

Because of the high temperature that we cook our pizzas at, both sugar and oil (both will encourage browning and burning) are not required. WFO pizza dough is traditionally only flour, salt, water and yeast.

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If it's any help, for 750g flour I use 30g smoked Maldon sea salt crystals, unmilled. I've arrived at this figure through trial and error. (Not sure if these are sold in the US, but should be available mail-order.)

Don't know how this converts to pounds and ounces - sorry!

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Ive tried no sugar when trying to allow the yeast to activate/rise but it never worked, so ever since then I add a teaspoon of sugar to the yeast to kick start the reaction. Are you guys saying without sugar the yeast will work but just take longer?